Florida coalition targets pending federal pollution rules

From Wire Reports

Monday

Nov 23, 2009 at 6:41 AM

After losing on the legal front, a powerful coalition of agriculture and business interests, wastewater utilities, water managers and tax watchdogs is mounting a lobbying assault on pending federal rules that could force Florida to clean up pollution fouling lakes, canals, streams and beaches statewide.

The target: A settlement a federal judge in Tallahassee approved last week in a lawsuit brought by five environmental groups against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

It requires that federal regulators, for the first time, step in and set a state's water quality standards for nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus that flow into waterways from fertilized lawns, sewage plants, farms fields, cattle pastures and a host of other sources.

They've called on state congressional leaders to block the EPA action, enlisted two former state environmental secretaries, Virginia Wetherell and Colleen Castille, and created a website branding the EPA rules a federal "water tax.'' Their projections for the cost to local and state governments for the cleanup: As much as $50 billion -- and that's just for overhauling the state's sewage systems, a price tag that could double customer's bills.

"I wish Florida were in a financial position to be able to throw billions at this issue,'' said Wetherell, who ran the state Department of Environmental Protection from 1993 to 1998. "I am concerned about the economy of Florida. I am concerned about how local government is going to fund all this.''

David Guest, an attorney for Earthjustice, a public interest law firm that sued the EPA for the environmental groups, called the opponents' projected numbers for cleanup wildly inflated "smoke and mirrors.''

"They're just making them up,'' he said. "You don't even know what the standards are going to be yet.''

Environmentalists said the tougher numeric standards are years overdue for nutrients, which have become the state's most widespread water woe.

High concentrations have triggered repeated algae blooms in Lake Okeechobee, the St. Johns, St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers, along the beaches of Southwest Florida and other waterways. The nastiest blue-green blooms have left fish dead, waters too unhealthy to swim in and residents and tourists wheezing. The EPA, citing the Clean Water Act, first urged states to set legal water quality limits for nutrients more than a decade ago and warned the agency would set them itself by 2004 if states did not comply. Instead, Florida's Department of Environmental Protection adopted "narrative'' standards that state regulators have insisted are needed to address varying natural conditions in the waterways and water bodies.

The environmental groups -- the Florida Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, St. Johns Riverkeeper and Environmental Conservancy of Southwest Florida -- sued in July 2008, arguing the state's standards were too vague, a point the EPA agreed with.

Under the settlement, approved over motions filed by lawyers for Florida Agricultural Commissioner Charles Bronson as well as objections from local governments and industries, EPA is scheduled to propose nutrient limits for lakes, streams and creeks in January and finalize them by October 2010. Limits for coastal waters and estuaries are due in January 2011, with final rules expected to be set by October 2011.

POLLUTERS ON RADARThe agreement could have significant impacts on polluters big and small, potentially requiring sewage plants to add new layers of treatment before discharging to surface waters or limiting or banning fertilizer use by suburban gardeners. Former state environmental secretary Castille said agency scientists had worked for years to develop standards and a regional cleanup plan with the EPA that reflected, and protected, the diversity of the state's waterbodies.

Castille acknowledged the state still had a long way to go, but said its existing system was working and dramatically cutting nutrient loading. She pointed to one model, adopted with cooperation of utilities, that cut nutrient flow to the St. Johns River in half.

"When I left in 2006, I thought we were all ready to go,'' she said. "Apparently, EPA changed its mind.''

Wetherell and Castille -- who led the DEP when state lawmakers overhauled Everglades pollution regulations, essentially pushing deadlines back a decade -- defended state oversight, calling Florida a national leader in water quality. Both became lobbyists after leaving the state but said they weren't representing clients in joining the fight against numeric standards they and other critics call ``scientifically unsound.''

But the bulk of the concern is the potential price tag of meeting those standards, whatever they may be, when Florida's economy and tax revenues remain in a free fall. Paul Steinbrecher, vice president of the Florida Water Environment Association Utility Council, said the EPA is rushing to meet an arbitrary deadline without adequately analyzing the costs. The $25 to $50 billion estimates to retrofit the state's sewage plants with microfiltration and reverse osmosis systems, he said, "are just the tip of the iceberg.'' Cities might face far larger bills to clean fertilizers flushed from suburban lawns every time it rains.

"This is really about the return for the investment and the environmental benefits we will get,'' he said.

Environmentalists counter that foes are ignoring the long-term impact of stagnant lakes and estuaries and rotting fish on beaches to an economy that more than ever needs to draw visitors and home buyers.

VAGUE 'NARRATIVE'They contend opponents are primarily looking to preserve revenue streams and profit margins protected by the vague "narrative'' state standards that allow the continued release of high volumes of nutrients. The St. Johns, for instance, remains periodically under health advisories despite the state cleanup plan, they said.

"Asking for clean water is not a stretch,'' said St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon. "There are algae blooms even today in the St. Johns River. Moving forward quickly is an imperative.''

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